semiconductor industry

In the past 3 months, silicon wafer shipments leveled off and the YoY growth rate had started to rebound, SEMI reported in Silicon Wafer Market Monitor, a new quarterly report that tracks wafer shipment dynamics including historical shipments, supply & demand shifts, and pricing trends & forecasts.

We are now in the recovery phase of the current business cycle with SEMI equipment already in a growth mode. However significant economic and geopolitical concerns persist.

With all major global electronic equipment OEMs having now reported their third quarter financials, we estimate that combined equipment sales increased 0.4 percent in 3Q’19 versus 3Q’18 and 2 percent sequentially from the second versus the third quarter of this year.

Despite a tough year for critical subsystem suppliers, their overall expenditure on R&D has remained at near record levels– evidence that critical subsystems are indeed critical to the semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry and that high R&D spending on these products is essential.

Reports of 2Q’19 financials from all of the major OEMs in our 213 company global sample show that their electronic equipment sales declined 1.4 percent compared to the same quarter of last year.

In March, the decline in week-over-year chip sales appeared to be slowing, providing a glimmer of hope for the beginning of a new cycle. However, the recent rapid escalation of the tariff war between the U.S. and China heaped more uncertainty on the industry and visibility continues to remain low. 

When will the memory market likely show signs of bottoming out? Following is an analysis of the current memory climate using the Memory Inventory Cycle Index introduced in this SEMI two-part article series in October 2018.

The semiconductor industry felt more of a fourth-quarter slowdown than the end markets.  Semiconductor-related products are typically much more volatile than the electronic equipment markets they serve.

This year, SEMI ISS covered it all – from a high-level semiconductor market and global geopolitical overview down to the neuro morphic and quantum level. Here are key takeaways from the Day 1 keynote and Economic Trends and Market Perspectives presentations.In the opening keynote, Anne Kelleher...

Region’s Fab Capacity Expansion Picks up PaceUnwavering in its drive to build a strong, self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain, China plans more new fab projects than any other region in the world from 2017 to 2020, and its expansion of fab capacity recently picked up pace on the strength of...